#5 The 13th Warrior

The 13th Warrior (1999)

directed by

John McTiernan

written by

William Wisher, Jr.

Warren Lewis

Original director John McTiernan was fired and replaced by author Michael Crichton (the movie's based on Crichton's novel, Eaters of the Dead), the movie suffers from a choppy narrative with certain major storylines simply vanishing, and ridiculous anachronisms. And, still, still, I love this movie beyond all reason. It is one of the few real adventure movies of the past few decades that compares to the greats of the past. In it, an Arab diplomat finds himself dragooned into an expedition with a warrior named Buliwyf to face a terrible force out of legend, the Eaters of the Dead. Antonio Banderas is great as the effete diplomat who finds himself forced into unsuspected acts of heroism on the behalf of strangers at the end of the world. The tension, as the Eaters wage their war on the Hrothgar's people, keeps getting higher and higher. When Buliwyf and company find themselves forced to seek their foes underground is one of the great extended action sequences. Man, I love this movie

Verdict: a keeper, definitely

A few years ago, I wrote a review of both the book and the movie that you can read here.

Antonio Banderas and Vladimir Kulich